Man Charged Following Shocking Video Of Woman Being Hit At AFL Match

A 24 year-old man has been charged after an alleged assault on a woman at the Fremantle-Hawthorn AFL preliminary final last night in Perth.

The 38 year-old woman, an off-duty police officer, told radio station Triple M that she was trying to protect her children when the man attacked her.

"He jumped up and was screaming and shouting and lots of people were asking him to sit down," the woman, calling herself "Sarah", said.

"When he started to walk towards me I just knew I had to stand between him and my kids and I said 'mate, you just need to sit down, you're ruining it for the children here.'

"I said 'just take a seat, you're really scaring my kids', and that's when he struck me in the throat."

The woman said her 13 year old son was "shaking like a leaf" and her 8 year-old stepdaughter had vowed never to go to the football again.

The AFL's Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan told ABC News he was "incredibly angered" by the spectacle.

"Our supporters need to feel safe. Children need to feel safe, women need to feel safe at the football and that behaviour cannot be tolerated in any form. But I have to say personally when I see a man striking a woman, it makes me incredibly angry.

"This morning when I was speaking to my wife and my daughters were on speaker phone, I had to talk in code. As I sit here as chief executive representing a league and I've got to have that discussion, I can't tell you how angry it makes me feel and I'm disappointed for our industry that I'm talking on an issue as outrageous as what happened last night," he said.

The man will face court charged with common assault, two counts of obstructing a public officer and one count of disorderly behaviour.